Features of the plot and composition of Gogol's poem "Dead Souls"
Starting work on the poem "Dead Souls", Gogol wrote that he wanted to "show at least one side of all Rus'" in this direction. So the writer defined his main task and the ideological concept of the poem. To implement such a grandiose theme, he needed to create a work that was original in form and content.
The poem has a ring "composition", which is distinguished by its originality and does not repeat a similar composition, say, the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" or Gogol comedy"Inspector". It is framed by the action of the first and eleventh chapters: Chichikov enters the city and leaves it.
The exposition, traditionally located at the beginning of the work, in "Dead Souls" was moved to its end. Thus, the eleventh chapter is, as it were, the informal beginning of the poem and its formal end. The poem begins with the development of the action: Chichikov begins his path to "acquisition".
The genre of the work, which the author himself defines as an epic poem, also looks somewhat unusual. Highly appreciating the ideological and artistic merits of "Dead Souls", V. G. Belinsky, for example, wondered why Gogol called this work a poem: "This novel, for some reason called a poem by the author, is a work as national as highly artistic".
The construction of "Dead Souls" is distinguished by logic and consistency. Each chapter is completed thematically, it has its own task and its own subject matter. In addition, some of them have a similar composition, such as chapters on the characteristics of landowners. They begin with a description of the landscape, the estate, the house and life, the appearance of the hero, then a dinner is shown, where the hero is already acting. And the completion of this action is the attitude of the landlord to the sale dead souls. Such a construction of chapters made it possible for Gogol to show how, on the basis of serfdom, different types landowners and how serfdom in the second quarter of the 19th century, due to the growth of capitalist forces, it led the landowning class to economic and moral decline.
In contrast to the author's inclination towards logic, in "Dead Souls" absurdity and alogism strikes the eye everywhere. According to the principle of alogism, many images of the poem are built, the actions and deeds of the heroes are absurd. The desire to explain facts and phenomena at every step collides with an inexplicable and uncontrollable mind. Gogol shows his Rus', and this Rus' is absurd. Madness here replaces common sense and sober calculation, nothing can be fully explained, and life is controlled
absurdity and nonsense.In the context of the whole work, in understanding its intention, in the composition and development of the plot great importance have lyrical digressions and inserted short stories. Very important role plays "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin". Not connected in its content with the main plot, it continues and deepens the main theme of the poem - the theme of the death of the soul, the kingdom of dead souls. In other lyrical digressions, a citizen writer appears before us, deeply understanding and feeling the full force of his responsibility, passionately loving his Motherland, and suffering from the ugliness and unrest that surround him and that are happening everywhere in his beloved and long-suffering Motherland.
Macro composition of the poem " Dead Souls", that is, the composition of the entire conceived work was suggested to Gogol by the immortal" Divine Comedy"Dante: the first volume is the hell of feudal reality, realm of the dead shower; the second is purgatory; the third is heaven. This idea remained unfulfilled. Having written the first volume, Gogol did not put an end to it, she remained beyond the horizon of an unfinished work. The writer could not lead his hero through purgatory and show the Russian reader the coming paradise, which he had dreamed of all his life.
Tasks and tests on the topic "Features of the plot and composition of Gogol's poem Dead Souls"
- Morphological norm
Lessons: 1 Assignments: 8
- Work with text - Important topics for repeating the exam in the Russian language
1. "Dead soul" as a realistic work
b) The principles of realism in the poem:
1. Historicism
Gogol wrote about his own time - approximately the end of the 20s - the beginning of the 30s, during the crisis of serfdom in Russia.
2. Typical characters in typical circumstances
The main trends in the depiction of landlords and officials are satirical description, social typification and a general critical orientation. "Dead Souls" is a work of everyday life. Particular attention is paid to the description of nature, the estate and the interior, the details of the portrait. Most of the characters are shown statically. great attention paid attention to the details, the so-called "mud of trifles" (for example, the character of Plyushkin). Gogol correlates various plans: universal scales (a lyrical digression about a troika bird) and the smallest details (a description of a trip along extremely bad Russian roads).
3. Means of satirical typification
a) The author's characteristics of the characters, b) Comic situations (for example, Manilov and Chichikov cannot part at the door), c) Appeal to the past of the characters (Chichikov, Plyushkin), d) Hyperbole ( unexpected death prosecutor, the extraordinary gluttony of Sobakevich), e) Proverbs (“Neither in the city of Bogdan, nor in the village of Selifan”), f) Comparisons (Sobakevich is compared with medium size bear, Korobochka - with a mongrel in the hay).
2. Genre originality
Calling his work a “poem”, Gogol meant: “a lesser kind of epic ... A prospectus for an educational book of literature for Russian youth. The hero of epics is a private and invisible person, but significant in many respects for observing the human soul.
The poem is a genre that goes back to tradition ancient epic, in which a holistic being was recreated in all its contradictions. The Slavophiles insisted on this characterization of "Dead Souls", appealing to the fact that elements of the poem, as a glorifying genre, are also in "Dead Souls" ( digressions). Gogol himself, later in his "Selected passages from correspondence with friends", analyzing the translation of Zhukovsky's "Odyssey", will admire the ancient epic and the genius of Homer, who presented not only the events that make up the core of the poem, but also "the whole ancient world"in its entirety, with its way of life, beliefs, popular beliefs, etc., that is, the very spirit of the people of that era. In letters to friends, Gogol called "Dead Souls" not only a poem, but also a novel. In "Dead Souls" there are features of an adventure-adventure, picaresque, and also a social novel. However, "Dead Souls" is usually not called a novel, since there is practically no love intrigue in the work.
3. Features of the plot and composition
The features of the plot of "Dead Souls" are associated primarily with the image of Chichikov and his ideological and compositional role. Gogol: "The author leads his life through a chain of adventures and changes, in order to present at the same time a true picture of everything significant in the features and customs of the time he took ... a picture of shortcomings, abuses, vices." In a letter to V. Zhukovsky, Gogol mentions that he wanted to show "all Rus'" in the poem. The poem is written in the form of a journey, disparate fragments of the life of Russia are united into a single whole. This is the main compositional role Chichikov. The independent role of the image is reduced to the description of a new type of Russian life, an entrepreneur-adventurer. In chapter 11, the author gives a biography of Chichikov, from which it follows that the hero uses either the position of an official or the mythical position of a landowner to achieve his goals.
The composition is built on the principle of "concentric circles" or "enclosed spaces" (city, estates of landowners, all of Russia).
4. The theme of the motherland and the people
Gogol wrote about his work: "All Rus' will appear in it." The life of the ruling class and common people given without idealization. Peasants are characterized by ignorance, narrow-mindedness, downtroddenness (the images of Petrushka and Selifan, the courtyard girl Korobochka, who does not know where the right is, where the left is, Uncle Mityai and Uncle Minyay, who are discussing whether Chichikov’s britzka will reach Moscow and Kazan). Nevertheless, the author warmly describes the talent and other creative abilities of the people (a lyrical digression about the Russian language, a characterization of a Yaroslavl peasant in a digression about the Bird Troika, Sobakevich's register of peasants).
Much attention is paid to the popular revolt (the story of Captain Kopeikin). The theme of the future of Russia is reflected in Gogol's poetic attitude to his homeland (lyrical digressions about Rus' and the troika bird).
5. Features of the image of landlords in the poem
The images drawn by Gogol in the poem were ambiguously perceived by his contemporaries: many reproached him for drawing a caricature of his contemporary life, depicting reality in a ridiculous, absurd way.
Gogol unfolds in front of the reader a whole gallery of images of landowners (leading his main character from the first to the last), primarily in order to answer main question who occupied it - what is the future of Russia, what is its historical purpose, what modern life contains at least a small hint of a bright, prosperous future for the people, which will be the key to the future greatness of the nation. In other words, the question that Gogol asks at the end, in a lyrical digression about "Rus-Troika", permeates the entire narrative as a leitmotif, and it is to him that the logic and poetics of the entire work are subordinated, including the images of landowners (see Logic of creativity).
The first of the landowners whom Chichikov visits in the hope of buying dead souls is Manilov. Main features: Manilov is completely divorced from reality, his main occupation is fruitless wandering in the clouds, useless projecting. He talks about it like appearance his estates (a house on a hill, open to all winds, an arbor - a “temple of solitary reflection”, traces of begun and unfinished buildings), and the interior of residential premises (mismatched furniture, heaps of pipe ash laid out in neat rows on a windowsill, some book, second year laid down on the fourteenth page, etc.). Drawing the image, Gogol pays special attention to the details, interior, things, through them showing the features of the owner's character. Manilov, despite his "great" thoughts, is stupid, vulgar and sentimental (lisping with his wife, "ancient Greek" names of not quite neat and well-mannered children). The internal and external squalor of the type depicted prompts Gogol, starting from him, to look for a positive ideal, and to do this "from the opposite." If complete detachment from reality and fruitless wandering in the clouds lead to this, then perhaps the opposite type will inspire some hope in us?
The box in this respect is the exact opposite of Manilov. Unlike him, she does not hover in the clouds, but, on the contrary, is completely immersed in everyday life. However, the image of the Box does not give the desired ideal. Pettiness and stinginess (old coats kept in chests, money put into a stocking for a “rainy day”), inertia, stupid adherence to tradition, rejection and fear of everything new, “clubhead” make her appearance almost more repulsive than that of Manilov .
For all the dissimilarity of the characters of Manilov and Korobochka, they have one thing in common - inactivity. Both Manilov and Korobochka (albeit for opposite reasons) do not affect the reality around them. Maybe an active person will be a model from which the younger generation should take an example? And, as if in answer to this question, Nozdryov appears. Nozdryov is extremely active. However, all of it flurry of activity is mostly scandalous. He is a frequenter of all drunkenness and revelry in the district, he changes everything for whatever he gets (he tries to give Chichikov puppies, a hurdy-gurdy, a horse, etc.), cheats when playing cards and even checkers, mediocrely squanders the money that he gets from selling harvest. He lies unnecessarily (it is Nozdryov who subsequently confirms the rumor that Chichikov wanted to steal the governor's daughter and took him as an accomplice, without blinking an eye agrees that Chichikov is Napoleon, who fled from exile, etc.). Repeatedly he was beaten, and by his own friends, and the next day, as if nothing had happened, he appeared to them and continued everything in the same spirit - "he is nothing, and they, as they say, nothing." As a result, almost more troubles come from Nozdryov's "activities" than from the inaction of Manilov and Korobochka. Nevertheless, there is a feature that unites all the three types described - this is impracticality.
The next landowner, Sobakenich, is extremely practical. This is the type of "master", "fist". Everything in his house is solid, reliable, made "for centuries" (even the furniture seems to be full of complacency and wants to shout: "Iya Sobakevich!"). However, all Sobakevich's practicality is directed only towards one goal - obtaining personal gain, for the achievement of which he stops at nothing (“scoldling” by Sobakevich of everyone and everything - in the city, according to him, there is one decent person - the prosecutor, “and even the one who if you look at it, it’s a pig”, Sobakevich’s “meal”, when he eats mountains of food and so on, seems to be able to swallow the whole world in one sitting, a scene with buying dead shower, when Sobakevich is not in the least surprised at the very subject of the sale, but immediately feels that the matter smells of money that can be “ripped off” from Chichikov). It is quite clear that Sobakevich is even further away from the sought-for ideal than all previous types.
Plushkin is a kind of generalizing image. He is the only one whose path to his current state (“how he got to such a life”) is shown to us by Gogol. Giving the image of Plyushkin in development, Gogol raises this final image to a kind of symbol, accommodating Manilov, and Korobochka, and Nozdryov, and Sobakevich. What is common to all the types bred in the poem is that their life is not sanctified by thought, a socially useful goal, is not filled with concern for the common good, progress, and the desire for national prosperity. Any activity (or inaction) is useless and meaningless if they do not carry concern for the good of the nation, the country. That is why Plyushkin turns into a "hole in humanity", that is why his repulsive, disgusting image of a miser who has lost all human appearance, stealing old buckets and other rubbish from his own peasants, turning own house into a dump, and his serfs into beggars - that is why his image is the final stop for all these manila, boxes, nostrils and dogs. And just like Plyushkin, Russia can turn out to be a “hole in humanity” if it does not find the strength in itself to tear away all these “dead souls” and bring national life to the surface. positive image- active, with a mobile mind and imagination, diligent in business and, most importantly, consecrated by concern for the common good. It is characteristic that it was precisely this type that Gogol tried to portray in the second volume of Dead Souls in the form of the landowner Kostanjoglo (see below). However surrounding reality did not provide material for such images - Costanjoglo turned out to be a speculative scheme that does not have any real life not the slightest relationship. Russian reality supplied only manila, boxes, nostrils and Plushkins - “Where am I? I don’t see anything ... Not a single human face, .. Only snouts, snouts around ... ”- exclaims Gogol through the mouth of the Governor in The Government Inspector (compare with the“ evil spirits ”from“ Evenings ... ”and“ Mirgorod ”: pig's snout poking through the window in " Sorochinskaya Fair", mocking inhuman muzzles in the "Enchanted Place"). That is why the words about Rus'-troika sound like a woeful cry-warning - "Where are you rushing? .. He does not give an answer ...". The meaning of this passage, interpreted in different ways in different time, can be understood by recalling a similar, very reminiscent of this, passage from the Notes of a Madman:
"No, I can't take it anymore. God! what are they doing to me!.. They don't heed, they don't see, they don't listen to me. What did I do to them? Why are they torturing me? What do they want from me poor? What can I give them? I dont have anything. I am unable, I cannot endure all their torments, my head is on fire, and everything is spinning before me. Help me! take me! give me a trio of horses as fast as a whirlwind! Sit down, my driver, ring, my bell, soar, horses, and carry me from this world! Further, further, so that nothing, nothing can be seen. There the sky swirls before me; an asterisk sparkles in the distance; the forest is rushing with dark trees and a moon; gray fog creeps underfoot; the string rings in the fog; on one side the sea, on the other Italy; you can see the Russian huts too. Does my house turn blue in the distance? Is my mother sitting in front of the window? Mother, save your poor son! drop a tear on his sick little head] look how they torment him! hug your poor orphan to your breast! he has no place in the world! they chase him! Mother! have pity on your poor child!”
Thus, the troika is, according to Gogol, what should rush him away from all these Plyushkins, Dzhimords, boxes and Akaki Akakievichs, and Russia-troika is the image of that Russia, which, having overcome all its age-old ailments: slavery, darkness corruption and impunity of power, longsuffering and silence of the people - will enter into new life worthy of free, enlightened people.
But so far there are no prerequisites for this. And Chichikov rides in a britzka - a swindler, the embodiment of mediocrity, neither this nor that - who feels at ease in the Russian open spaces, who is free to take where something is bad and who is free to fool fools and scold bad Russian roads.
So the main and main point of the poem lies in the fact that Gogol wanted to understand the historical path of Russia through artistic images, to see its future, to feel the sprouts of a new one in the reality surrounding him, a better life, to distinguish those forces that will turn Russia off the sidelines of world history and include it in the general cultural process. The image of the landowners is a reflection of this very search. Through extreme typification, Gogol creates figures of a national scale, representing the Russian character in many forms, in all its contradictory and ambiguous nature.
The types bred by Gogol are an integral part of Russian life, these are precisely Russian types that are as bright as they are stable in Russian life - until life itself changes radically.
6. Features of the image of officials
Like the images of landowners, the images of officials, whose whole gallery Gogol unfolds in front of the reader, perform a certain function. Showing the life and customs of the provincial town of NN, the author tries to answer the main question that concerns him - what is the future of Russia, what is its historical purpose, what in modern life contains at least a small hint of a bright, prosperous future for the people.
The theme of bureaucracy is an integral part and continuation of the ideas that Gogol developed by depicting landowners in the poem. It is no coincidence that the images of officials follow the images of the landowners. If the evil embodied in the owners of the estates - in all these boxes, manilovs, sobeviches, nostrils and Plyushkins - is scattered throughout the Russian expanses, then here it appears in a concentrated form, compressed by the living conditions of a provincial city. A huge number of "dead souls" gathered together creates a special monstrously absurd atmosphere. If the character of each of the landowners left a unique imprint on his house and estate as a whole, then the city is influenced by the entire huge mass of people (including officials, since officials are the first people in the city) living in it. The city is turning into a completely independent mechanism, living according to its own laws, dispatching its needs through offices, departments, councils, and others. public institutions. And it is the officials who ensure the functioning of this whole mechanism. The unmarked life of a civil servant high idea, the desire to promote the common good, becomes the embodied function of the bureaucratic mechanism. In essence, a person ceases to be a person, he loses all personal characteristics (unlike the landowners, who had an ugly, but still their own physiognomy), loses even given name, since the name is still a certain personal characteristic, and becomes simply the Postmaster, Prosecutor, Governor, Chief of Police, Chairman, or the owner of an unimaginable nickname like Ivan Antonovich Kuvshinnoye Rylo. A person turns into a detail, a "cog" of the state machine, the micromodel of which is the provincial town of NN.
Officials themselves are unremarkable, except for the position they hold. To enhance the contrast, Gogol cites grotesque "portraits" of some officials - so the chief of police is famous for the fact that, according to rumors, he only needs to blink, passing by the fish row, to ensure himself a sumptuous dinner and an abundance of fish delicacies. The postmaster, whose name was Ivan Andreevich, is known for the fact that they always added to his name: “Sprechen zi deutsch, Ivan Andreich?” The chairman of the chamber knew Zhukovsky's "Lyudmila" by heart and "masterfully read many places, especially: "Bor fell asleep, the valley is sleeping," and the word "Chu!" Others, as Gogol sarcastically notes, were “also more or less enlightened people: some read Karamzin, some Moskovskie Vedomosti, some even read nothing at all.”
The reaction of the inhabitants of the city, including officials, to the news that Chichikov is buying dead souls is noteworthy - what is happening does not fit into the usual framework and immediately gives rise to the most fantastic assumptions - from the fact that Chichikov wanted to kidnap the governor's daughter, to the fact that Chichikov - either a wanted counterfeiter or a runaway robber, about whom the Chief of Police receives an order for immediate detention. The grotesqueness of the situation is only intensified by the fact that the Postmaster decides that Chichikov is Captain Kopeikin in disguise, a hero of the war of 1812, an invalid without an arm and leg. The rest of the officials assume that Chichikov is Napoleon in disguise who escaped from Saint Helena. The absurdity of the situation reaches its climax when, as a result of a collision with insoluble problems (from mental stress), the prosecutor dies. In general, the situation in the city resembles the behavior of a mechanism into which a grain of sand has suddenly fallen. Wheels and cogs, designed for quite specific functions, scroll idly, some break with a bang, and the whole mechanism rings, strums and "peddles". It is the soulless car that is a kind of symbol of the city, and it is in this context that the very title of the poem - “ Dead Souls" - takes on a new meaning.
Gogol, as it were, asks the question - if the first people in the city are like this, then what are all the rest? Where is the positive ideal that will serve as an example for the new generation? If the city is a soulless machine that kills everything living, pure in people, destroying the very human essence, depriving them of all human feelings and even normal name transforming the city itself into a "graveyard" of dead souls, then in the end, the whole of Russia can take on a similar appearance if it does not find the strength to reject all this "dead matter" and bring to the surface of national life a positive image - active, with a mobile mind and imagination, diligent in business and most importantly - consecrated concern for the common good.
About the second volume of "Dead Souls"
Gogol, in the guise of the landowner Kostanzhoglo, tried to show a positive ideal (Chichikov comes to him and sees his activities). It embodied Gogol's ideas about the harmonious structure of life: rational management, a responsible attitude to the work of all those involved in the construction of the estate, the use of the fruits of science. Under the influence of Costanjoglo, Chichikov had to reconsider his attitude to reality and "correct himself." However, sensing in his work "life untruth", Gogol burned the second volume of "Dead Souls".
Story about prose. Reflections and analysis Shklovsky Viktor Borisovich
Dead souls - plot
Dead souls - plot
Relatively little was written about the originality of the plot of the poem "Dead Souls" after Belinsky, but how much was published in the old literary criticism about the so-called literary "influences" that created the work by their interaction. They pointed to the influence of Dickens. Similarities Between Gogol's Poem and Dickens's Notes Pickwick Club» the outermost. Gogol learned Dickens only in Rome, when the poem was basically written in rough draft, all its main plot moves were outlined.
Gogol's poem is not like picaresque novels either. A picaresque novel is an adventure novel, a novel in which the rogue hero - "pikaro" - is opposed to a society of decent people.
From this point of view, it is interesting that Merimee, in his article on Gogol, noted the difference between the plot of Dead Souls and the plots of picaresque novels.
In picaresque novels, the rogue infiltrates noble society. In "Dead Souls" a deal that "... could only be concluded between scoundrels, but by pushing his hero only with provincial simpletons, Mr. Gogol thereby makes it impossible."
Here Merimee gives a traditional and incorrect interpretation of the plot of Gogol's poem. Her heroes are not simpletons - they themselves are "dead souls"; Chichikov is not opposed to them. With the help of Chichikov's speculation, various types of provincial society are explored; people placed in certain plot relationships, in response to the offer to sell dead souls, are revealed in their essence. Merimee does not understand Gogol here.
The chain of events is as follows: a carriage enters the city; sits in it ordinary person. No one pays attention to him, "... only two Russian peasants, standing at the door of the tavern opposite the hotel, made some remarks, which, however, related more to the carriage than to the person sitting in it."
After that goes description hotel and visitor: the visitor signs on a piece of paper to report to the police. So we learn the surname - Chichikov. Realistic picture unfolds provincial town; there is a story about how a visitor gets acquainted with the inhabitants of this wilderness. It is emphasized that everyone liked him here and seemed to be a respectable person. The visitor makes visits to the landowners. First he goes to Manilov. The trip is sketched in every detail: Chichikov's servants, Manilov's house, Manilov himself, "sweet" conversations between friends are described. But then, quite unexpectedly, Chichikov's strange proposal follows: "I suppose to acquire the dead, which, however, would be listed as alive according to the revision."
The deal went through, but Manilov remains confused. Chichikov leaves, accidentally ends up with Korobochka. With Korobochka he speaks differently than with Manilov. Gogol writes: "The reader, I think, has already noticed that Chichikov, despite his affectionate appearance, spoke, however, with more freedom than with Manilov, and did not stand on ceremony at all."
It should be noted that not only Chichikov speaks differently with different landowners, but they themselves react differently to the offer to sell dead souls.
Gogol introduces us to the milieu of the landowners and, with the help of Chichikov's suggestions, examines the characters of the proprietors, who, each in his own way, agree to take part in sheer chicanery.
In The Inspector General, the tie captures all the heroes in one big knot. We see the same thing in Dead Souls.
In the first part of "Dead Souls" the same knot is tied by including in Chichikov's fraudulent enterprise the most diverse representatives of the "first" estate in the state.
The purchase of Chichikov created a stir in the city and became the subject of conversation. Thanks to Nozdryov's violent expansiveness, the strangeness of the purchase is revealed; attempts are made to unravel the mystery. Before that, Chichikov's meeting with the governor's daughter is described. Here is what Gogol writes about the impression of his hero from the second meeting at the ball: “...everything was shrouded in fog, similar to a carelessly painted field in a picture...”
After we have already seen many people and understood a lot, after a whole string of characters has passed before us, as if exhausting all the possible varieties that have grown on this social soil, the solution follows - the denouement of the first volume: the secret is revealed, but it is revealed in an extremely original way - by recreating the history of the formation of Chichikov's character.
Gogol usually gave in his works an already established character: we do not see the development of character in him; development is, as it were, replaced by a multilateral discovery character, the variety of its analysis. But in Dead Souls, Gogol wanted to make his characters change; he still wanted to "resurrect" dead souls, "resurrect" Chichikov, Tentetnikov, and even Plyushkin. To this end, even in Chichikov’s character, he already outlined, albeit timidly, the features of a certain poetic quality, attributed to this character such properties that he could not have, made him contradictory. Belinsky noticed this and in the article “Explanation for an explanation ...” wrote: “... in Dead Souls there are also, at least, slips of the tongue against the immediacy of creativity, and very important, although very few ... the poet very unreasonably makes Chichikov fantasize about life simple Russian people when considering the register of dead souls bought by them. True, this "fantasy" is one of the best places poems: it is full of depth of thought and strength of feeling, endless poetry and at the same time amazing reality; but the less it goes to Chichikov, a man of genius in the sense of a rogue-acquirer, but completely empty and insignificant in all other respects. Here the poet clearly gave him his own noblest and purest tears, invisible and unknown to the world, his deep, sadly loving humor and forced him to say what he had to say on his own behalf. In the same way, Chichikov's reflections on Sobakevich, when he wrote a receipt, also go little to Chichikov ... these reflections are too smart, noble and humane ... "
However, Gogol himself was not aware of these deviations from the truth of reality, from the "immediacy of creativity," as Belinsky said; he attributed to Chichikov precisely those traits that were supposed to help the writer subsequently "resurrect" this acquirer and turn him into person. But the analysis of the fate of the hero did not provide a rationale for such a "resurrection", and Gogol's image of Chichikov turned out to be contradictory in this respect. This contradiction was not overcome by the writer.
Lyrical digressions, opposed to the world of the acquirer, succeeded the writer, but none of them could be transferred to the acquirer himself. The fate of the peasants, the work and fun of barge haulers cannot be sympathetically perceived by Chichikov.
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From the book Calendar-2. Arguments about the indisputable author Bykov Dmitry Lvovich From the book Pushkin and the Void [The Birth of Culture from the Spirit of Reality] author Yastrebov Andrey LeonidovichDead words, or Hell by hand December 24th. Dima Bilan was born (1981) Lyrics of Russian pop music It is not customary to listen to the lyrics of pop songs, which is a pity. pops frankly great art: the author's personality in it does not overshadow reality. The present is broadcast as it is
From the book Forms of Literary Self-Reflection in Russian Prose of the First Third of the 20th Century author Khatyamova Marina AlbertovnaDead Souls In Search of Joy Marina. Mom ... (Pauses.) Kolya. Well? Marina. That week I bought a TV set ... Kolya. I know you said. Marina. I have two cuts for a dress, a fur coat, yesterday she brought an expensive carpet ... Kolya. And what? Marina. He brings some bundles home, and then takes them away ...
From the book of Paralogy [Transformations of (post)modernist discourse in Russian culture 1920-2000] author Lipovetsky Mark Naumovich From the author's bookParnok's Plot and the Author's Plot Mandelstam's short story frankly resists plot reading: it seems that its style is aimed at hiding rather than revealing the trauma that gave rise to this text. Three main "events" of the story can be distinguished: two
Starting work on the poem "Dead Souls", Gogol wrote that he wanted to "show at least one side of all Rus'" in this direction. So the writer defined his main task and ideological concept poems. To implement such a grandiose theme, he needed to create a work that was original in form and content.
The poem has a ring "composition", which is distinguished by its originality and does not repeat a similar composition, say, the novel by M. Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" or Gogol's comedy "The Government Inspector". It is framed by the action of the first and eleventh chapters: Chichikov enters the city and leaves it.
The exposition, traditionally located at the beginning of the work, was moved to the end of Dead Souls. Thus, the eleventh chapter is, as it were, the informal beginning of the poem and its formal end. The poem, on the other hand, begins with the development of the action: Chichikov begins his path to “acquisition”.
The genre of the work, which the author himself defines as an epic poem, also looks somewhat unusual. Highly appreciating the ideological and artistic merits of Dead Souls, V. G. Belinsky, for example, wondered why Gogol called this work a poem: “This novel, for some reason called a poem by the author, is a work as national as highly artistic."
The construction of "Dead Souls" is logical and consistent. Each chapter is completed thematically, it has its own task and its own subject matter. In addition, some of them have a similar composition, such as chapters on the characteristics of landowners. They begin with a description of the landscape, the estate, the house and life, the appearance of the hero, then a dinner is shown, where the hero is already acting. And the completion of this action is the attitude of the landowner to the sale of dead souls. Such a construction of chapters made it possible for Gogol to show how different types of landlords developed on the basis of serfdom and how serfdom in the second quarter of the 19th century, in connection with the growth of capitalist forces, led the landlord class to economic and moral decline.
In contrast to the author's inclination towards logic, in Dead Souls absurdity and alogism strikes the eye everywhere. According to the principle of alogism, many images of the poem are built, the actions and deeds of the heroes are absurd. The desire to explain facts and phenomena at every step collides with an inexplicable and uncontrollable mind. Gogol shows his Rus', and this Rus' is absurd. Madness here replaces common sense and sober calculation, nothing can be fully explained, and absurdity and absurdity govern life.
In the context of the whole work, in understanding its intention, in the composition and development of the plot, lyrical digressions and inserted short stories are of great importance. The Tale of Captain Kopeikin plays a very important role. Not connected in its content with the main plot, it continues and deepens the main theme of the poem - the theme of the death of the soul, the kingdom of dead souls. In other lyrical digressions, a citizen writer appears before us, deeply understanding and feeling the full force of his responsibility, passionately loving his Motherland, and suffering from the ugliness and unrest that surround him and that are happening everywhere in his beloved and long-suffering Motherland.
The macro-composition of the poem "Dead Souls", that is, the composition of the entire conceived work, was suggested to Gogol by Dante's immortal "Divine Comedy": the first volume is the hell of feudal reality, the realm of dead souls; the second is purgatory; the third is heaven. This idea remained unfulfilled. Having written the first volume, Gogol did not put an end to it, she remained beyond the horizon of an unfinished work. The writer could not lead his hero through purgatory and show the Russian reader the coming paradise, which he had dreamed of all his life.
The hero of the tragedy A. P. Sumarokov "Khorev" According to chronicle legend, Khoriv is one of the three brothers, the founders of the city of Kyiv. A likely source of information for Sumarokov was "Synopsis, or ...
Pedprospekt, Synopsis on the development of speech in the senior group - A conversation about forest nature ... Abstract on the development of speech in the senior group “Conversation about Tasks: - Arouse interest in the forest and its inhabitants. Enrich active, passive vocabulary ...
Each of the heroes of the poem - Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin, Chichikov - in itself does not represent anything of value. But Gogol managed to give them a generalized character and at the same time create a general picture of contemporary Russia. The title of the poem is symbolic and ambiguous. Dead souls are not only those who ended their earthly existence, not only the peasants who were bought by Chichikov, but also the landowners and provincial officials themselves, whom the reader meets on the pages of the poem. The words "dead souls" are used in the narrative in many shades and meanings. Prosperously living Sobakevich has more dead soul than the serfs whom he sells to Chichikov and who exist only in memory and on paper, and Chichikov himself is a new type of hero, an entrepreneur, in whom the features of the emerging bourgeoisie are embodied.
The chosen plot gave Gogol "complete freedom to travel all over Russia with the hero and bring out a multitude of the most diverse characters." The poem contains many actors, all social strata of serf Russia are represented: the acquirer Chichikov, officials of the provincial city and the capital, representatives of the highest nobility, landowners and serfs. A significant place in the ideological and compositional structure of the work is occupied by lyrical digressions, in which the author touches on the most acute public issues, and inserted episodes, which is typical for the poem as a literary genre.
The composition of "Dead Souls" serves to reveal each of the characters, bred in big picture. The author found an original and surprisingly simple compositional structure, which gave him the widest possibilities both for depicting life phenomena, and for connecting the narrative and lyrical principles, and for poetizing Russia.
The ratio of parts in "Dead Souls" is strictly thought out and subject to creative design. The first chapter of the poem can be defined as a kind of introduction. The action has not yet begun, and the author is only in general terms draws his characters. In the first chapter, the author introduces us to the peculiarities of the life of a provincial city, to city officials, landowners Manilov, Nozdrev and Sobakevich, as well as to central character works - by Chichikov, who begins to make profitable acquaintances and is preparing for action, and his faithful companions - Petrushka and Selifan. In the same chapter, two peasants are described talking about the wheel of Chichikov's chaise, a young man dressed in a suit "with attempts on fashion", a fidgety tavern servant and other "petty people". And although the action has not yet begun, the reader begins to guess that Chichikov came to the provincial town with some secret intentions, which are revealed later.
The meaning of Chichikov's enterprise was as follows. Once every 10-15 years, the treasury conducted a census of the serf population. Between the censuses (“revision tales”), the landlords had a fixed number of serf (revision) souls (only men were indicated in the census). Naturally, the peasants died, but according to the documents, officially, they were considered alive until the next census. For serfs, the landowners paid tax annually, including for the dead. “Listen, mother,” Chichikov explains to Korobochka, “yes, you only judge well: after all, you are ruined. Pay for him (the deceased) as if he were alive.” Chichikov acquires dead peasants in order to pawn them, as if alive, in the Board of Trustees and receive a decent amount of money.
A few days after arriving in the provincial town, Chichikov goes on a journey: he visits the estates of Manilov, Korobochka, Nozdrev, Sobakevich, Plyushkin and acquires “dead souls” from them. Showing the criminal combinations of Chichikov, the author creates unforgettable images of the landowners: the empty dreamer Manilov, the stingy Korobochka, the incorrigible liar Nozdrev, the greedy Sobakevich and the degraded Plyushkin. The action takes an unexpected turn when, on his way to Sobakevich, Chichikov ends up at Korobochka.
The sequence of events has great sense and dictated by the development of the plot: the writer sought to reveal in his heroes an ever greater loss human qualities the death of their souls. As Gogol himself said: "My heroes follow one after the other, one more vulgar than the other." So, in Manilov, beginning a series of landowner characters, the human principle has not yet completely died, as evidenced by his “outbursts” for spiritual life, but his aspirations are gradually dying down. The thrifty Korobochka no longer has even a hint of a spiritual life, everything is subordinated to her desire to sell the products of her natural economy at a profit. Nozdrev completely lacks any moral and moral principles. There is very little human left in Sobakevich, and everything animal and cruel is clearly manifested. Completes the series expressive images landowners Plyushkin - a person on the verge of mental decay. The images of landlords created by Gogol are typical people for their time and environment. They could have become decent individuals, but the fact that they are the owners of serf souls has deprived them of their humanity. For them, serfs are not people, but things.
The image of landlord Rus' replaces the image of the provincial city. The author introduces us to the world of officials dealing with affairs government controlled. City chapters expand the picture noble Russia and the impression of her deadness deepens. Depicting the world of officials, Gogol first shows their funny sides, and then makes the reader think about the laws that reign in this world. All officials passing before the reader's mind turn out to be people without the slightest idea of honor and duty, they are bound by mutual patronage and mutual responsibility. Their life, like the life of the landowners, is meaningless.
The return of Chichikov to the city and the design of the bill of sale fortress is the culmination of the plot. Officials congratulate him on the acquisition of serfs. But Nozdryov and Korobochka reveal the tricks of the "most respectable Pavel Ivanovich", and general merriment gives way to confusion. The denouement is coming: Chichikov hurriedly leaves the city. The picture of Chichikov's exposure is drawn with humor, acquiring a pronounced revealing character. The author, with unconcealed irony, tells about the gossip and rumors that arose in the provincial town in connection with the exposure of the “millionaire”. Overwhelmed by anxiety and panic, officials unwittingly discover their dark illegal deeds.
A special place in the novel is occupied by The Tale of Captain Kopeikin. It is plot-related to the poem and is of great importance for revealing the ideological and artistic meaning of the work. “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” gave Gogol the opportunity to take the reader to Petersburg, create an image of the city, introduce the theme of 1812 into the narrative and tell the story of the fate of the war hero, Captain Kopeikin, while exposing the bureaucratic arbitrariness and arbitrariness of the authorities, the injustice of the existing system. In The Tale of Captain Kopeikin, the author raises the question that luxury turns a person away from morality.
The place of the "Tale ..." is determined by the development of the plot. When ridiculous rumors about Chichikov began to spread around the city, officials, alarmed by the appointment of a new governor and the possibility of their exposure, gathered together to clarify the situation and protect themselves from the inevitable "scolds". The story about Captain Kopeikin is not accidentally conducted on behalf of the postmaster. As head of the postal department, he may have read newspapers and magazines, and could learn a lot about metropolitan life. He liked to "show off" in front of the audience, to throw dust in the eyes of his education. The postmaster tells the story of Captain Kopeikin at the moment of the greatest commotion that engulfed the provincial town. "The Tale of Captain Kopeikin" is another confirmation that feudal system is declining, and new forces, albeit spontaneously, are already preparing to embark on the path of combating social evil and injustice. The story of Kopeikin, as it were, completes the picture of statehood and shows that arbitrariness reigns not only among officials, but also in higher strata, up to the minister and the king.
In the eleventh chapter, which completes the work, the author shows how Chichikov's enterprise ended, talks about his origin, tells how his character was formed, views on life were developed. Penetrating into the spiritual recesses of his hero, Gogol presents to the reader everything that “eludes and hides from the light”, reveals “hidden thoughts that a person does not entrust to anyone”, and we are faced with a scoundrel who is rarely visited by human feelings.
On the first pages of the poem, the author himself describes him somehow vaguely: “... not a handsome man, but not bad-looking, neither too thick nor too thin. Provincial officials and landlords, whose characters are revealed in the following chapters of the poem, characterize Chichikov as "well-intentioned", "efficient", "scientist", "the most amiable and courteous person." Based on this, one gets the impression that we are faced with the personification of the "ideal of a decent person."
The whole plot of the poem is built as an exposure of Chichikov, since the scam with the sale and purchase of "dead souls" is at the center of the story. In the system of images of the poem, Chichikov stands somewhat apart. He plays the role of a landowner, traveling according to his needs, and by origin he is, but he has very little connection with the lord's local life. Each time he appears before us in a new guise and always achieves his goal. In the world of such people, friendship and love are not valued. They are characterized by extraordinary perseverance, will, energy, perseverance, practical calculation and tireless activity, they hide a vile and terrible power.
Understanding the danger posed by people like Chichikov, Gogol openly ridicules his hero, reveals his insignificance. Gogol's satire becomes a kind of weapon with which the writer exposes Chichikov's "dead soul"; says that such people, despite their tenacious mind and adaptability, are doomed to death. And Gogol's laughter, which helps him expose the world of self-interest, evil and deceit, was suggested to him by the people. It is in the soul of the people throughout for long years hatred for the oppressors, for the "masters of life" grew and strengthened. And only laughter helped him to survive in a monstrous world, not to lose optimism and love of life.
